“Memory…the diary we all carry with us.”
- Oscar Wilde
I hate being late!!
It was close to 9AM, driving on East McCarty street in
Jefferson City, Missouri and I was running a little late to the bank. I had set the meeting a week earlier before
leaving San Diego to take care of some family business while visiting with my
sister. The appointment had been set, it
was clear I wouldn’t quite make it on time, and for a fellow who doesn’t like
to be late…I was a little stressed.
Memories built…
You know how it is when you are doing something sort of
mindlessly…listening to music, exercising, driving a car…when suddenly a memory
pops into your head. The trigger could
be anything – often unknown. A memory
that you could not have brought to mind if someone had given you money, but
there it is, clear as day!
An odd little place…
As fate would have it, I passed the address where Molly and
I had first lived after getting married.
It had been an odd little three-room apartment along the length of half
the building with rooms stacked end to end…living room, bedroom and kitchen
next to one another in a straight line.
Getting to the kitchen, in the back, meant passing through the bedroom
in the middle – the bathroom just off the kitchen. Because the bathroom was just off the kitchen,
visitors needing to use it had to go through the bedroom.
Passing that address on East McCarty Street triggered one of
those remembrances that bubbled up in my brain until I laughed out loud. It didn’t matter that the building was now
gone replaced by an empty lot! My mind
instantly returned to the apartment with its appearance and ‘feel’ in intimate detail. Moments like this remind me what a wondrous
gift we have as human beings to be able to recall both images and feelings…even
smells and sensations.
Off and on we would have a good friend stay with us. Since we had no spare room, Dick would sleep
on the couch. He and I had started a
small consulting business and ran an early morning – 5AM – community fitness
program. Later, in the not too distant
future, he would move to Jefferson City, but in the mean time, he stayed with
us.
This led to curious privacy issues, because in the night, if
he needed to use the facilities, he had to pass through our bedroom. Usually, I was asleep, but occasionally, I
would wake up and see this dark figure tiptoeing quietly through the room like
the specter of a ghost. One particular
night, both Molly and I noticed this and got the giggles. The kind of giggles that are hard to stop
once they get going. Dick trying to
quietly slip through… the two of us trying ignore the fact a fellow was going
just by the bed…in a moment, the three of us were in stitches…I suppose you
would had to have been there, but it was funny!
As I drove by the address on that Monday morning, I was
instantly transported to the image of this event and saw it as clearly as if it
had just happened!
Who knows how it
works…
In the Bible David writes: “…for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
(Psalm 139:14) While we live in an
animal body – wondrous in its own right – it is the mind that has such an
astonishing and apparently unlimited capacity.
It doesn’t take much reflection to appreciate almost everything
we consume in our lives came from an idea in someone’s mind. Things we take for granted in every day life
– from the tiny and intricate to the large and complex – began somewhere in the recesses of someone’s
mind as a simple thought…a simple “…’hmm, I wonder’…‘what if?” – an awesome
thing to appreciate.
It would be enough if we had only the capacity to create
things from thought and the resources we find around us, but there is
more. David writes in another place: “When
I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?...” (Psalm
8:3,4). We have the capacity to reflect
and wonder about the grander and unknown things beyond...you know…just beyond
the unseen horizon. It is the ‘…just beyond…’ that really drives, or rather
draws us.
Yet, this mind, this curious and for the most part poorly
understood mass of protoplasm, protected and locked inside the hard case of our
skull, also has the capacity to simply entertain us. I don’t mean entertain in the broader
sense…theater, art, film, song, or dance…I mean just in quiet, maybe even
intimate moments when we least expect it.
You know, like driving past a place thirty years in the past and having
a crystal clear memory come back…back to remind…back to reflect…back to bring
context…back to bring a chuckle or maybe just because!
A momentary step
aside…
I know this memory thing can work with reminders that are sometimes
painful and not so pleasant. I also know
that when any thought instantly returns to our minds, we can embrace or reject
it…we can open the door to further reflection or close it and move away from
it. I believe this kind of conscious
acceptance and rejection helps to shape the going forward in our lives.
Back on task…
On this morning as I hurried, late and a bit stressed to
make a meeting, I was given the unrequested gift of an event in life that
provided exactly what I needed to bring a little relief, perspective and
appreciation. Yeah, I made the meeting…a
little late, but in the few minutes it took to get there, I was reminded not
just of an event, but a part of the rich fabric of my life, the people in it
and the journey that has made it so meaningful this far…
- ted
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